Guy Crouchback, the youngest member of a declining British aristocratic family, is on self-imposed exile in Italy, ashamed of his failed marriage. When World War II breaks out, he sees a chance to turn his life around, and to combat the evils of modernity. As it turns out, war is not so glamorous as he’d imagined, and he finds himself an officer in an old, stodgy regiment, surrounded by eccentric and buffoonish characters, like his friend Apthorpe, a career soldier with an exceedingly complicated past. Guy is determined to do right by himself, and by his Catholic faith, but circumstances will not make it easy.